A domestic dispute is being blamed by police for a seven-hour standoff Friday night and Saturday morning in a well-to-do Balltown Road neighborhood. According to Niskayuna police, Matthew Hayner, 30, of Gloversville, violated an order of protection when he showed up about 5:30 p.m. Friday at a house at 2553 Balltown Road, where his child and the child’s mother live. The unidentified woman and her two children were able to leave the house unharmed, police ...

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OMG- what did this person do that was illegal? Since when can't you lock yourself in your own home? The way police respond these days is abuse of power and traumatizingWhy the SWAT Team? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? IF this person has a mental illness issue- its even more disgusting and evidence we have turned to a police state. Please give more details as to WHY do they want to Help this person? At the barrel of a gun and frightening military riot gear?

toni - Nice way to jump to conclusions without knowing all the facts. Police respond to people having mental health crises, sometimes more than a dozen times in one day, and they do not use the SWAT team. There must be facts not included in the article that made it rise to this level.

Might want to get all the facts before breaking into hysterical meltdown.

It would be nice if the Gazette ran an "UPDATE" on the story in the Sunday Gazette. All too often the story dies without closure -=- I lived close to 50 years in and around that area and have relatives still living there. They are as much in the dark as I am.

According to the Times Union the resident had an order of protection against the boyfriend who showed up and may have been armed and refused to leave. That is why SWAT was called in, contrary to what tonijean believes Schenectady SWAT members do not like to be called from their dinner tables to rush to a scene that could possibly involve their death or injury.

daily: my point is that the people of Niskayuna pay extra taxes to have a Mayberry RFD police department that is not equipped to handle a situation like this and must call in outside support. Who pays for that? But they refuse to consider a county-wide police agency that could dispatch a specially trained team to anywhere in the county when a life threatening situation arises. And how much do all the Mayberry RFD police agencies in the county cost everyone? Especially in this case where those who's taxes support the agency that has the expertise does the work for others outside their jurisdiction. Mutual aid is great. But what's the actual expense to everyone?

Niskayuna has a great police force Ronzo. You continue to call for a county wide police force and this is basically a county wide SWAT team. I have a couple friends on this team, they train constantly and there is a cost to keep these guys trained. Also you need to have enough officers to make up a SWAT team and that means people on vacation, sick, unavailable or working patrol as you can't leave a city unprotected for what could be days, depending on the situation. There are 29 police officers in Niskayuna including detectives and chiefs and you need 15 to 20 for a team. So by using Schenectady in these situations it is less expensive and as mezz3131 said that area may have been inside the city limits anyway.

wmarincic: There is a huge difference between an entire county police department and a SWAT team within one police agency that gets called to support other departments in a county. With a county police department there would be ONE chief, one set of command and one set of support administrators and a SWAT team that is funded by the county to serve the entire county. In little Schenectady County there are five police chiefs, five commands and five administrations, and five of everything else that is necessary to support a police department. Who pays for all that? The only part of Balltown Rd. that is in Schenectady city is the west side from along the golf course to just past Shirley Dr. This event was no where near there and clearly within Niskayuna.

ronzo - oversimplification of county wide pd. bottom line, biggest expense for police is salary and benefits - unless consolidation will reduce the amount of police needed - it does not save money. "expert" from Columbia threw out figure of millions in savings but I still do not see where it comes from.

reader1: that's exactly my point - salary and benefits. How much salary and benefits for duplicate police chiefs and command staffs within a county can be saved and applied to more effective use of police resources. Like maybe deploying more police officers per shift within a county. This is the only place where I have lived that does not have county based services like schools, fire and police protection, etc. And has THE highest tax rates. I just cannot understand why people here are so resistant to efficiencies that can result in lower property taxes.

Maybe people are not so much resistant as they have better understanding of the issue.

Property taxes have a lot to do with the fact the city was built on a factory and a highly unionized workforce - the jobs are gone and more people receiving some form of govt. assistance have replaced them.